A 12-foot wall of water, propelled by 212 km/h winds, violently crashed near the mouth of the Irrawaddy Delta in southern Mayanmar on May 2, 2008, literally stripping away entire villages, damaging the capital city and leaving the coastal plain submerged.
Cyclone Nargis killed approximately 140,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless. Worsening an already grim situation, the country's rulers were placing restrictions on international aid, making it difficult for humanitarian relief to get to the 3.2 million people who were affected, the majority of which were in Irrawaddy and Yangon, the capital.
CW Asia Fund, a humanitarian organization co-founded by B.C. physician Dr. John Cassils and his wife Nina, were determined to respond to the urgent needs of the flood victims. Through great efforts, 30 Physician Travel Packs (PTPs) supplied by Health Partners International of Canada (HPIC), and destined for Médecins Sans Frontières (AZG in Myanmar), were successfully delivered to the capital city of Yangon.
Targeted medicines
Pharmascience, a Canadian generic pharmaceutical company, generously donated several of the essential medicines included in the PTPs, which can treat up to 600 patients. Medical staff from Médecins Sans Frontières and three other relief agencies used the medicines to treat the injuries and predictable infectious diseases that follow when people are forced to live in crammed, unhygienic conditions and drink contaminated water.
Pharmascience donated pms-Ibuprofen for pain, fever and aches, pms-Lindane Shampoo to treat lice, Bacitracin to treat and prevent skin infections and Pediatric Electrolye to replace essential body fluids and minerals, lost due to diarrheal disease outbreaks. George Montgomery, Special Projects Coordinator at Pharmascience, says these are the types of projects that drive him in his work. “I know it's doing a world of good for people who really need it,” he says.
Dr. Cassils and his wife Nina said the donated medicines made a significant difference. “Your donation has added so much to help alleviate the hardships suffered by the survivors.”
Pharmascience's wide assortment of donated products are used across all HPIC programs, including the 30 PTPs that went towards emergency relief in Myanmar. The company has donated over $30 million worth of medicines since their partnership with HPIC began in 1995.
Pharmascience CEO, David Goodman says, “Our partnership with HPIC enables us to affect health and well-being beyond our own borders, and ‘create the difference’ in people's lives, in places like Myanmar and other developing countries around the world.”
